Antoinette waited until Sam had joined her before she introduced him to her colleagues. “I’m going to be working on one of Sergeant Long’s cases for a little while,” she explained.
“I don’t want to interrupt,” Sam told her. “I just wanted to find out if you had time after school hours today to meet with Laurie.”
“My whole afternoon is free. Wednesdays are my day to catch up on dictation.”
Rosy rolled her eyes. “Thursdays are my worst days! Dr. D oughta write encyclopedias.” She began a story about the typing Antoinette made her do that demanded everyone’s attention except Sam’s and Antoinette’s.
Sam had watched the lively camaraderie in the tiny office full of people long enough to be surprised by it. He’d expected serious, quiet professionals going about their business with chronic nods and narrowed eyes. Then he thought about Joshua Martane, who was a psychologist, too, and wondered where he’d picked up his own stereotypes. He also wondered just what there was about Antoinette Deveraux—besides physical beauty—that had made him take the extra time to see her in person rather than calling and leaving a message with her secretary.
He’d wanted to see her, even though he’d known that he’d be seeing her soon anyway. He’d wanted to start his day with another conversation, another chance to size her up and, yes, damn it, another chance to just enjoy her. He was only human, a fact that he and most other cops had to remind themselves of from time to time. He was not immune to women, especially when they were raven haired, five foot eight and movie-star beautiful.
“Would you like some coffee or apple strudel?” Antoinette found herself hoping Sam would accept her offer. She was in no hurry to see him leave.
“I can’t stay.”
She wondered at her own disappointment. “Then where shall I meet you this afternoon?”
Sam forced his attention to the business at hand. “Why don’t I pick you up here about three? That’ll save you from trying to find the house on your own. It’s not a great neighborhood.”
Antoinette started to refuse, but the thought of being alone with Sam for the minutes it would take to get to where Laurie was staying was enticing. “Fine. I’ll be downstairs so you won’t have to park.”
Sam nodded. In a moment he was gone.
Daffy left the group around Rosy, wandering over to Antoinette’s side. “Married, divorced or eternally single?” she asked, watching Antoinette, whose eyes were still trained on the doorway with a faraway stare.
“I don’t know.”
“Then I’d guess the latter. The man thinks he’s too smart to let himself get caught.”
“What else did you see?” Antoinette focused her gaze on her friend.
“Possibilities.” Daffy reached behind her for another piece of strudel and held it out to Antoinette. “Here. You’re going to need the fortification.”
Sitting next to Sam in his car later that afternoon, Antoinette decided Daffy was probably right. She’d had no trouble resisting men in her twenty-eight years, except once. That man and that marriage had taught her all she wanted to know about the per-fidies of the male sex. But there was something about Sam Long that made her forget all her lessons. He was going to be a difficult man to ignore.
“Where are we headed?” Antoinette asked as he turned his car off Carrollton and onto Orleans Avenue.
“Not too far. But if you’re not familiar with Mid-City, you can get lost.”
“I live about half a mile in that direction,” Antoinette said, pointing to the right.
“So does Laurie.”
“It was my neighborhood you were insulting.”
“I had you pegged for a condo over on St. Charles.”
“Nope. A plain little white frame number with a screened-in front porch and absolutely nothing to recommend it except a fenced-in yard for my dog and a clear shot at the Endymion parade. If I’m ever out of work, I can rent out my bathroom by the minute on the Saturday before Mardi Gras and make a fortune.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” Antoinette turned a little so she could see Sam’s face.
“Why here? You can afford better.”
“Because the neighborhood is full of real people.”
“Do you study them?”
Antoinette turned back to stare out the windshield. “People fascinate me, but I don’t put them under a microscope, if that’s what you mean. I like people and I respect them—people with problems included.”
Sam just continued to drive.
“Why are you trying so hard to put me in a category?” Antoinette asked finally.
Sam had been asking himself the same question. He was surprised to hear Antoinette verbalize his thoughts. “I haven’t figured it out yet myself. Maybe I don’t like unknowns. That’s part of my training.”
“When you’re dealing with people, you can never know everything,” she pointed out.
Sam pulled his car into a space in front of an old two-story house with a balcony that tilted at a sad angle from the second floor. “You can never know everything, but you can know enough to make fairly accurate predictions. That’s what police work is all about.”
“Psychology, too. But it’s a professional hazard to carry it into your personal life.”
Sam got out and came around to open Antoinette’s door, but she was already standing on the sidewalk when he got there. “Let’s go meet Laurie.”
“Sam.”
He stopped and turned to face her. “Yeah?”
“It would be easier for both of us if you’d just forget what you think you know about me and give me the benefit of the doubt until I do something to prove I’m guilty.”
“Guilty of what?”
“Of being a beautiful, spoiled rich girl.”
“You’re definitely guilty of the first,” he said. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached out to touch a long lock of black hair that lay over her shoulder. He withdrew his hand when he realized what the simple movement was doing to his insides. “And I have been guilty of reverse snobbery.”
She was glad he could see it and was surprised that he could admit it. She smiled her answer.
“Now let’s go meet Laurie,” he said again. In a moment Antoinette was following him up the steps and onto the porch.
“She’s shy, even with women.” Sam raised his hand to knock. The door opened, and two small bodies hurtled out, followed by a dog who was not as purebred but just as large as a Great Dane.
“Laurie?” Antoinette asked, one eyebrow raised.
Sam shook his head. “The foster parents here have six kids of their own and three other foster kids besides Laurie. They collect children like some people collect stamps.” He stepped aside as another child followed the first two. Before Antoinette could tell their ages, or even their sex, the children had disappeared down the street.
“Mrs. Patterson?” Sam shouted through the door that was still ajar.
“Come on in.”
Antoinette stepped inside the door that Sam held open for her. Then she followed him through the house and into the kitchen.
“I thought it was probably you.” Mrs. Patterson, a plump, frowsy woman with her hands deep in bread dough, looked up to give them both a big smile. “You’ll have to excuse me, but if I stop kneading this bread, it won’t be any good.”
“No problem. This is Dr. Deveraux. Dr. Deveraux, Mrs. Patterson.”
“Glad to meet you.” Mrs. Patterson kneaded rhythmically as she talked. “Laurie’s upstairs with her nose in a book. I’ve never seen a child read as much as that one does.”
“How has her adjustment been?” Antoinette asked.
“She’s real quiet, hardly says a word unless you ask her something directly. But she never gives us any trouble. If you ask me, the ones who never give you any trouble are the ones who’re in trouble. Give me a kid who acts out anytime.”
Antoinette nodded. “How many kids have come through here? Obviously you’ve learned a lot.”
> “We’ve had fifty-four kids, some for a day or two, some stayed until they graduated from high school. Six of them became ours for life.” Mrs. Patterson pushed and pulled, pushed and pulled.
“I’d say they were lucky kids,” Sam told her.
“Oh, we’re the lucky ones. Had a few come through who caused no end of trouble, but most of them have been fine little people. I miss them something terrible when they go.”
Antoinette nodded. The Mrs. Pattersons of the world never ceased to amaze her. Their kind of unqualified love was the glue that held society together. “When is Laurie scheduled to go back to her mother?” she asked.
“Next week, if everything goes well. She’ll be glad, too. She and her mother have been alone so long she’s not used to the noise and the push and shove around here. But I think it’s good for her.”
“It is,” Sam affirmed. “I want Dr. Deveraux to meet her. Would it be all right if I went upstairs and brought her down?”
“Sure thing.”
“Sam—” Antoinette stopped him with a hand on his arm. “If Laurie’s afraid of men, is it a good idea for you to be the one to get her?”
Mrs. Patterson’s belly laugh filled the kitchen. “Laurie may be afraid of men,” she told Antoinette, “but there’s one man in the world she’s not afraid of and that’s Sergeant Long. She’s almost as crazy about him as he is about her.”
“Is that so?” Antoinette said, her hand still on Sam’s arm.
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Mrs. Patterson continued. “I think Sergeant Long has done more to help that child than years of therapy would ever have done. She needed a man she could believe in, and she found one.”
Antoinette met Sam’s gaze. He definitely looked uncomfortable. “I think Laurie chose wisely,” she said softly. She squeezed his arm and then dropped her hand. “I’ll look forward to meeting her.”
Chapter 3
Laurie was coming today.
Antoinette stood in the doorway of her office and tried to picture the comfortable room as seen through the eyes of a scared little girl. Laurie would be scared. Of that there was no doubt. Two days before, at Mrs. Patterson’s house, she had hardly spoken a word to Antoinette. She had blinked her huge brown eyes and twisted the ponytail that had been lovingly brushed into one long golden curl. She had nodded solemnly and bitten her lower lip. She had only smiled once…at Sam.
Sam would be coming, too. Detective Sergeant Sam Long, the stereotypical cop with the one-word answers and the cynicism that dripped out of every pore. But Antoinette knew now, without a doubt, that he was very different from the image he tried so hard to project. The real Sam Long was a man with magic fingers that could take away pain, and the compassion to care about a frightened little girl. From the beginning Antoinette had sensed a vulnerability in him that he struggled to hide. Now, after seeing him with Laurie, she knew she had imagined nothing.
The hypnosis session wasn’t going to be simple. Hypnotizing children never was. Hypnotizing children with a suspicious adult hovering in the background was the worst possible scenario, but Antoinette knew that it was the scenario she would be dealing with. Sam was allowing her a chance with Laurie, but he wasn’t enthusiastic. He was fiercely protective of the little girl. She knew nothing of his history, but if he wasn’t a father already, he should be.
Idly Antoinette walked to her desk and began to rearrange items on it for something to do while she waited. Mentally she prepared herself for what was to come. She had few doubts about the ease with which Laurie would go into a trance. Antoinette had visited Mrs. Fischer, Laurie’s mother, in the hospital to obtain a history. According to Mrs. Fischer, Laurie was an intelligent child who already, at age seven, could lose herself in a book and while away an entire afternoon. She had an active imagination and, considering what traumas she had been through in her short life, was well adjusted. All those factors were promising.
The social history had been enlightening, both to help Antoinette understand the child and to help her understand Sam’s protectiveness. Laurie had been badly beaten by her father more than once. Mr. Fischer was the son of a wealthy family in a small Mississippi town, and when Mrs. Fischer had divorced him and reported him to the authorities, no one but Mrs. Fischer’s own immediate family had supported her story. In fear for Laurie’s life, Mrs. Fischer had fled the town, bringing Laurie to New Orleans where Mrs. Fischer had eked out an existence by cleaning office buildings. Even her family didn’t know where she was, and she lived in terror that she would be found and Laurie taken from her by her former husband or his parents.
The story was a sad one. Because of her experience Laurie disliked and distrusted men, although play therapy at the local mental health center had helped her learn to tolerate them. Then Sam Long had come along, and the little girl, traumatized by the fire and her exile to a foster home, had broken her own rules and chosen him as a person she could trust. According to both Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. Fischer, Laurie couldn’t have made a better choice. Sam had spent hours with the little girl, drawing her out of her shell, reassuring her, listening to her concerns.
Antoinette suspected that Sam was even more involved with the child than he’d admitted. As he’d driven Antoinette back to pick up her car after meeting Laurie, she had asked if he had any plans to help the family after Mrs. Fischer was released from the hospital. His reply had been noncommittal, but Antoinette was sure that something was in the works. If Sam had anything to say about it, Laurie was not going to spend any more nights sleeping on office building couches, and Mrs. Fischer wasn’t going to spend her life on her hands and knees scrubbing floors.
It was amazing, really, that such a sensitive man could hide under Sam’s tough, arrogant veneer. Antoinette recognized veneers better than most people. Not only was she trained to see beyond them but also she had developed the skill from her personal experience. She had been married to a man with one, although his had been the sensitive-on-the-outside, thoroughly-corrupt-on-the-inside variety. There was no question that she found Sam’s combination more appealing.
Actually, there was no question that Sam Long appealed to her, period. And that feeling was new and definitely scary. Since her divorce she’d been careful not to let herself in for another self-destructive relationship; there had been no more Ross Dunlaps in her life after their marriage had ended. In exchange for that security, however, she had chosen to have no one in her life at all.
Antoinette knew enough about her own responses to recognize the unusual nature and depth of her interest in Sam. She also knew enough about her own needs to recognize the foolishness of her attraction. Sam Long would not be able to offer her the kind of sharing, the kind of intensity, that she wanted in a relationship. He was a far cry from her ex-husband, but in the last analysis he and Ross had one thing in common: something else would always take precedence over their personal lives. If she allowed herself to pursue this attraction to Sam, she would be repeating history.
By the time Sam’s knock sounded on her office door, Antoinette had put away all thoughts of him as anything other than a policeman who needed her help. When she answered the door, it was Laurie on whom she focused her attention.
“Hello, Laurie.” Antoinette smiled at the little girl dressed in a navy blue jumper and a polka-dot blouse. Laurie’s answer was an expression of sheer terror. Antoinette straightened a little and met Sam’s eyes. “Sergeant Long,” she said with a nod. “Come in and let’s get comfortable.”
“She didn’t want to come,” Sam said with no preface.
“I’m sure she didn’t.” Antoinette focused her attention on Laurie again. “It’s scary doing new things, isn’t it? But you’re seven now, and you understand that even though grown-ups can make you do things you don’t like, you still have lots of control.”
“I don’t want you to hypnotize me.”
Antoinette’s heart went out to the little girl whose chin was wobbling as she fought to hold back her tears.
�
�I can’t do anything without your permission, Laurie. Come inside, and we’ll talk about it.”
Laurie turned her tear-filled brown eyes to Sam. “Are you going to stay?”
“Sure.”
“You won’t let her hypnotize me if I don’t want her to, will you?”
“No.”
Laurie crossed the threshold with tiny steps. Once inside she stopped, checking each detail of the room before she went any farther. As Antoinette watched, Laurie seemed to visibly relax. She gave a little sigh and then took a few more steps.
“What did you think you were going to find, Laurie?” Antoinette asked softly.
The child lifted her shoulders in a weary shrug. “I thought it’d be dark in here, like it was on TV.”
“I like the sunshine. There’s nothing I ever do that can’t be done in the sunshine.” Antoinette walked to the sofa and sat down, patting the space beside her. “Can you tell me more about what you saw on TV?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Okay.”
Antoinette motioned for Sam to sit in the chair beside her. Laurie continued to stand in the middle of the floor as Sam sat down.
“It was just a dumb cartoon.”
Antoinette nodded. “A cartoon you didn’t like.” Laurie walked to the desk and picked up a rosy-hued conch shell that Antoinette used as a paperweight. “Sometimes when I watch cartoons,” Antoinette observed, “I get scared.”
“Not me.” Laurie set the shell down. “Maybe once.”
Antoinette made an educated guess. “A cartoon about being hypnotized?”
“Gargamel made Papa Smurf do things he didn’t want to do.”
“Gargamel sounds like a bad man.”
“He’s always trying to get the Smurfs.”
“Does he ever get them?”
Laurie shook her head.
“Not even when he hypnotized Papa Smurf?”
Laurie shook her head again. “Where’s your necklace?”
Antoinette understood immediately. “I don’t have one.”
“Gargamel did. How can you hypnotize people without swinging a magic necklace in front of them?”
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